Interactive Voice Response systems (IVR), i.e. as implemented in Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) computer menu systems are in common use today to help in responding to telephone inquiries by people without the need for a human operator.
Even though IVR systems are better than being placed on-hold until an operator is available, because the system is serial in nature, it results in a great deal of frustration experienced by the user. The serial nature of today's IVR systems force the user to listen to the whole menu before making a choice and even then the user is not entirely sure that the selection is the correct one. If an incorrect selection is made, or the user did not hear the menu selection correctly, it is a difficult process to back out of the menu system and navigate to the needed part of the IVR menu system.
To solve the serial nature of today's IVR menu systems, the means to “look anywhere”, i.e. to navigate the menu system easily in any direction is needed. Computer software systems provide menu systems in the Graphical User Interface (GUI) that enable the user to “look ahead” prior to making a selection. Software menu systems include nested menus in which sub-menus lead off from other menu options.
The challenge is to integrate the visual menus of a GUI with the DTMF menus. U.S. Pat. No. 6,091,805 by Watson describes an implementation of this integration of visual and voice DTMF menus. The current invention implements a similar system to the '805 patent, but uses a more flexible methodology and system.